Bravo head honcho Andy Cohen, who believes he contracted the coronavirus by helping out an elderly neighbor with errands, recently tried to help even more with the fight against the pandemic. However, he was turned away because of his sexuality.
It’s common knowledge that donating blood is discriminatory towards the LGBTQIA community. There are many requirements on when and if you’re able to donate blood based on your sexuality.
However, you’d think that guidelines would be relaxed during a global pandemic where researchers are desperately trying to learn more about a disease that has never been faced before.
Andy took time from Watch What Happens Live to share the story of what happened when he tried to donate his plasma.
‘After recovering from coronavirus, I wanted to see if there was something that I could do to help people who were infected. I signed up for a program for COVID-19 survivors where you could donate plasma, which is rich in antibodies to those still battling the virus. I am ineligible to donate blood because I’m a gay man.’
He went on to explain the reason he was given.
‘[Current guidelines] require gay men to abstain from sex for three months, whether they’re in a monogamous relationship or not, before giving blood — though no such blanket restrictions exist for people of other sexual orientations. This virus is ravaging our planet. The FDA says there is an urgent need for plasma from survivors. All donated blood is screened for HIV. And a rapid HIV test can be done in 20 minutes or less. So why the three-month rule? Why are members of my community being excluded from helping out when so many people are sick and dying?’
In fact, before the rules were changed to three months on April 2, the previous time for abstaining from male to male sex was 12 months.
Advertisement
Since society has long had the technology to detect viruses and other diseases in blood in a quick manner, there should not be such an outrageous rule.
Post Views:
0
